Neo realism
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AB DILLI DUR NAHIN (Dir. Amar Kumar, 1957, India) – A Nehruvian Dream Through a Child’s Eyes
* * * Raj Kapoor’s 1950 production, Ab Dilli Dur Nahin, carries an unmistakable Nehruvian focus that, while sometimes feeling contrived, is salvaged by Master Romi (Mohammed Salim), one of India’s first child actors. Romi, first made a name himself in the K. A. Abbas Munna in 1954, apparently the first mainstream songless Indian film. Continue reading
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AMERICAN HEART (Dir. Martin Bell, 1992)
The solitary yet exceptional full length feature by filmmaker Martin Bell is one of the purest attempts at neo-realism in American cinema, effortlessly detailing the painful relationship between a father (Jeff Bridges) and son (Edward Furlong) in the scuzzy underbelly of Seattle. Anchored in what is a characteristically threadbare neorealist plot that finds father and Continue reading
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JAGO HUA SAVERA / THE DAY SHALL DAWN (India/Pakistan/Bangladesh, 1959, Dir. A. J. Kardar) – The Cosmopolitan Intersections of South Asian Neorealism
“This is the path of the spirit paved with thorns and stones. This is man’s shadow. This is night. But morning will come…” – Khalil Gibran Gibran’s poetic words point to a cycle of endurance, a battle to survive. This quote from Gibran is juxtaposed over the image of fishing boats at night, navigating the Continue reading
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TIKLI AND LAXMI BOMB (Dir. Aditya Kripalani, 2017, India) – Sex and the City
The hectic roadside at night is a connective urban tributary in Tikli and Laxmi Bomb, a brazen, atypical and bleak observation of sex workers in Mumbai. Given the rise of female centred narrative cinema and the strong female protagonist, a cycle of films including Lipstick under my Burkha, Pink, Piku, Anarkali of Aarah, NH-10, Margarita Continue reading
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